The nice folks at Physicool asked me to review their cooling bandage combination pack. I said I’d be very happy to do so provided they didn’t mind a completely honest review – and they kindly agreed and sent me a pack to try out. So here goes:

What is Physicool?

Physicool is a rapid evaporant which can be poured or sprayed onto their bandages. The liquid quickly evaporates into the air, drawing away the heat from the inflamed area and creating a cooling effect,

What is the combination pack?

The combination pack that Ian at Physicool sent me consists of a 3m long bandage and a 500 ml bottle of coolant. The bandage comes in its own small foil packet with coolant already applied, and that packet and the coolant bottle are packaged in another foil packet.

Opening the packs

On first use the seal along the top of both packages has to be torn off. My arthritis hands struggled slightly with the larger pack, but not much, and the smaller pack tore easily. Each pack is then sealed with a typical push-together plastic seal – not sure what those are called but you hopefully get the idea! These open easily.

Applying the bandage

The bandage has to first be squeezed to remove any excess evaporant, but it doesn’t need a very hard squeeze so that didn’t prove a challenge. I used the bandage on my knee – although I had a ‘size A’ bandage which is more appropriate for wrists, ankles etc. The knee was where I had the inflammation though, and actually the size was fine. The bandage is neatly rolled inside the bag and easy to unwind and apply. It has a velcro-style strip which can be attached to itself or to the bandage.

What I liked

It works. It cooled the inflamed area really, REALLY fast and that meant the pain went away fast.

The bandage is easy to apply.

I only needed to use it for half an hour – after that I took off the bandage and my knee still felt really cool for another half an hour. But it should last for up to two hours – and it can then be re-charged and you can carry on using it.

It’s portable. I use an ice pack normally but I can’t use that at work because we have no freezer in the building! This is something I can keep at work, and also take on holiday. Fantastic!

The coolant supplied with the bandage should last for up to two hours of use – so I’ve got four applications in the bandage before I need to recharge.

There should be enough coolant in the recharge bottle for around 8 more thirty-minute uses.

The packs are quite easy to open and the bandage was easy to apply and it didn’t slip once I’d put it in place.

What I didn’t like

It’s wet. Well, it would have to be of course, because if it wasn’t it wouldn’t evaporate! However, because it is a rapid evaporant it doesn’t feel wet for long.

It has a smell. It’s not a bad smell, but it’s definitely a smell. No smell at all would be perfect, but if it has to smell this isn’t a particularly unpleasant one – just very slightly hospitally!

It needs to be exposed to the air to work effectively – otherwise it can’t evaporate so well, of course. This means that whichever bit of you is using the bandage has to be uncovered. Not a problem if you want it to be cool, you may think, but what if the knee’s the problem and the only way to ‘expose it’ is to roll up your trousers? that leaves you with a cold ankle and calf.

Because it needs to be exposed to the air, when I used it on my knee and then put my leg up, the underneath part was against my footrest, not exposed to the air. This meant I had a wet patch for a while under my leg after I took the bandage off. It did evaporate though!

Do the benefits outweigh the irritations?

DEFINITELY! Now that I know what the ‘problems’ are for me, I can work around most of them. I can make sure I have a small blanket to cover any bits I don’t want exposed, and if I put my leg up, for instance, I can put it on a foot stool and leave the actually knee unsupported to avoid a wet patch. As to the smell and the temporary wetness – considering how incredibly effective this is at cooling the painful area – I can live with those.

A very good point! Do you find hot water bottles etc. help? Or does that just make things worse? I find both hot and cold help. My rheumy nurse recommended ice packs though, and I have to say this is, on the whole, better than an ice pack … for those bits you can get a bandage on to! (I’ve got a hip problem …again … too and it wouldn’t be much good for that!)

[…] As part of this giveaway I was sent a combo pack—or as they say in the U.K. – a combi pack—a bottle of Physicool and a bandage, which I have not yet had occasion to use. Thankfully, my joints are behaving themselves, so I am not able to comment on how this product worked for me. You can read Pollyanna Penguin’s review, here. […]

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A bit about me

My name is not Pollyanna and I'm not a penguin. If you'd not worked out the last bit you should probably stop reading this and seek out a psychologist.

This is a blog about me and rheumatoid arthritis - sounds like fun, huh? Well I'm hoping it'll be a bit more fun than it sounds - hence the Pollyanna part. I'm going to try to stay positive about it and play 'Pollyanna's glad game' - finding reasons to be cheerful basically.

If you really want to know more see the 'About me' page.

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